(photo credit: Charlie Stone)
St. Anthony’s coach Tim Dearie didn’t think that his team had their best day when they finished sixth in the Eastern States Championship at the Manhattan College Invitational on Oct. 9. That said, the Friars still ran impressively against state powers Rush-Henrietta, Fayetteville-Manlius, and Shaker, with a robust 19-second spread from their first through fifth runners.
“Believe it or not I’m encouraged,” said Dearie. “It shows that the elite teams are right there and that our goals of a high finish at Federations, and possibly a trip to Nationals, are within reach.”
Junior Patrick Ginty led the way with his 13:18 finish, good for 24th in a loaded field. Junior Matthew Taddeo was close behind in 13:28, while seniors Tom Diliberto and Kevin Kreider and junior Jake Hensler all came through between 13:32 and 13:38.
“We need everyone to run a good 10 seconds better,” said Dearie.
The Friars are third in the latest New York State Sports Writer’s Association rankings in Class A.
-Rush-Henrietta is coming off a strong, third-place showing in the Eastern States. A loss to Shaker the week before gave this group a jolt.
“When we lost to Shaker (at the McQuaid Invitational) it really opened our eyes,” said sophomore Mickey Burke. “It showed us how much heart it’s going to take for us to get to where we want to go.”
-Every team had to contend with the outlandish 80-degree weather on Sunday. However, coming out of the Rochester area, where winter is already poking through, teams like Rush-Henrietta were especially blind-sided by the conditions.
“When we left we were scraping ice off of our windshields,” said Rush-Henrietta coach Mike DeMay. “(The conditions) were really hard for the upstate kids.”
-Some links from this week:
New uni’s for Notre Dame Academy; Farrell gearing up for the stretch run:
Sachem East girls finish seventh at Eastern States’ Championship:
http://sachem.patch.com/articles/sachem-east-girls-xc-places-7th-at-eastern-states-championships
Brewster boys, Somers’ girls win league titles; Irvington boys, Dobbs Ferry girls win as well:
Pawling sweeps league titles:
Banner day for Chariho at Manhattan College Invitational:
http://www.thewesterlysun.com/sports/chariho-has-banner-day-at-manhattan-meet/article_dde82da4-f34b-11e0-90c3-001cc4c002e0.html